When Underworlds Collide
by Xavier Rall
Summary: They are here. They are among us. And very few have even heard of them. Only those with the extreme fortune to witness one demonstrate their "abilities" -and live- know that they exist. In fact, some of them dont even know that they are among that rare number, or at least, in part. They are not of this world. They are the fragments of another worlds remnant. This is their story.
1. Shadow of Remnant

**A/N: This story was originally published as an Aside to the RWBY "Emergence" fanfiction series thread on by XCVG. This same series is posted here on under the username Chris7221, which is so far composed of Emergence (Act 1), Aliens Among Us (Interquel), Those You Leave Behind (spin-off), Convergence (Act 2) and Emergence: Asides, which is a collection of omakes and side stories. This fic has been altered from its original version so as to be able to stand on its own and continue a different, unique story.**

 **I do not own RWBY. Rooster Teeth does. RIP Monty Oum.**

Chapter 1: Shadow of Remnant

"Well kid, that was easily one of the slickest jobs I`ve ever seen," remarked James "Jimmy" McGregor, lifting his glass of whiskey to his curling lips, taking a quick sip. Giving a satisfied sigh, he leaned back triumphantly in his black leather recliner. "I mean, if I had known that you coulda done this yourself in the first place, I wouldn`t have hired the other guys in the first place."

"It was only a job, Jimmy," said his guest, who was lounging on the sofa across from him with his feet propped up on the arm. "While yes, I did do more than I was hired for, I simply wanted to get all the money that was being used to pay for this job, and five million bucks is a lot."

Jimmy could not help but wonder how the guy had done it though. Looking at him, Jimmy saw a scrawny-looking seventeen year-old kid wearing some kind of black cosplay which consisted of an open Matrix-style trench coat wrapped with swirling silver patterns, over a dark grey vest and maroon button-down shirt and tie, with silver streaked black jeans and a pair of black combat boots. His right arm was buried in his coat`s deep pocket next to him. The left hand that he could see was wearing a fingerless black glove with gray edges. Perched on his head was a black fedora, shading a cheeky face with cocky orange eyes and covering a head of short black hair.

All in all, all he saw a brat dressed up like a supervillain from comic books, not a professional hitman who killed five high profile targets, all of them members of rival crime families who had been visiting the city for a rare get-together for reasons unknown, all in a timespan of fifty minutes, and in such a way that everybody, from the cops and feds to the gangs and the crime families had no idea what had been going on before it was too late. There was no humanly way it was possible that one kid had done it.

Then again, this kid was shrouded in urban legends.

"I gotta a question for ya, Shadow" Jimmy said, referring to his guest`s given moniker of the "Shadow of the Angel of Death" by underworld circles.

"Are the urban legends about me true?" the boy responded. Jimmy nodded. Shadow started to get up. "I figured that, with my stunning performance, you would be having your suspicions. That would explain my disarmament and the extra muscle, I believe?" Standing in the penthouse suite with the two were also a small army of seventeen goons, all of them armed to the teeth with both pistols and machine guns. Jimmy normally wouldn`t have so many men in one place armed so heavily, since he didn`t want to risk getting caught by the authorities, but his instincts of self-preservation convinced him that the risk would be worth it, to protect him from a potentially hostile inhuman monster. This was also why he the boys take away his two weird-looking pistols and sword, which followed his black motif that he had going on, with silver and maroon embellishments.

"Yeah. Even an idiot who heard about this could figure out that your work was inhuman." Jimmy may have been apprehensive about Shadow, he also knew that it would give him huge street cred if people heard rumor that he had an urban legend on his payroll. His abilities would make him an ideal enforcer in his group, and it might even bump him up a few ranks in the Mob.

"That`s why, not only am I giving you the five million for all five jobs," Jimmy said, getting up and opening the cases that were lying on the table between them, revealing hundreds of bundles of dollar bills, "but I`m also gonna offer you an even bigger deal."

"No thanks," Shadow replied.

"But I didn`t even make the offer yet," Jimmy said, spreading his arms out in a disbelieving manner, although inside he was also feeling a little flustered at the refusal.

"Doesn`t matter," the boy said, walking out the slide door onto the balcony. Leaning on it, he looked up at the shining moon with nostalgia in his eyes.

"Would you like to hear a story, Mr. McGregor?" Shadow asked.

"Sure."

"You know how lots of little kid grow up raised on bedtime stories? I grew up in New York listening to the fascinating stories that my father told me of a distant world populated by heroes that battled the monsters of the dark to protect the innocent, helpless people of the world. And he, of course, was there to see it all, and he himself had even taken part on some of these adventures. They were fantastic stories, I thought. But everyone I told them to simply laughed, telling me that they were unreal. My father was simply your typical office worker who was both overworked and underpaid, working on a long series of muddled and meaningless projects that had no end to them. Also the broken moon he mentioned in his stories gave less credence to it as well."

Jimmy quietly signaled his boys to gather closer, all of them training their guns on Shadow. The boy`s grin got a little wider as he fiddled with his hands in his pockets, and closed his eyes.

"Then, one day, while he and I had a rare opportunity to have some quality father-son time by camping in the Appalachian Mountains, we stumbled across a bear in the woods, probably some angry mama, and she, in a very unusual decision, chose to try to make us lunch. She came charging, and I simply froze, scared stiff. Then, my father yelled some great battle cry, charged, leaped, and straight up kicked the bear`s head off with a backwards roundhouse that Chuck Norris would be proud of. That night, he told that his stories were all true. Some of them had been passed down to him by his father, others he`d heard firsthand by the people who saw them, and some he himself had indeed experienced firsthand. He told me everything about Remnant, the Grimm, and, most importantly, Aura and Semblance."

There was a yelp as one of the men suddenly collapsed. Jimmy and his men turned briefly to see him with a knife buried in his back. They turned back around and Shadow was gone.

"That night, he activated my Aura, and he promised to train me to be a Huntsman like him. The Grimm might not have been here in this world, he said, but there was still a lot of darkness, and all Hunstmen battle it. And so, for years, he taught me his particular brand of martial arts and weapons fighting. I couldn`t quite match the speed and strength he utilized, not just because he was older, but also because, although he was Remnan, my mother was Terran, meaning that hybrids aren`t as strong as pure-blooded Remnans. But still, the Aura did give me quite a boost, and the day I discovered my Semblance was one of the best I ever had. Despite all of the awesomeness that I experienced though, I kept it all in the dark, not telling a single soul."

His voice came from everywhere. There was no telling where Shadow was. Jimmy was sweating like a pig. His men scoured the suite looking for him. One of them looked where they had stashed Shadow`s weapons. They too were gone.

"But then, three years ago, there was a fire at the apartment complex that my dad was visiting, where an old friend was living. He died there. My mother died of heartbreak soon after, leaving me an orphan. I grabbed my dad`s trusty weapons from Remnant and decided to hit the streets. I`ve been training myself even harder since then, and trying to figure out what to do with myself in that time. Then, one day, I came across some random group of thugs terrorizing a grocer. When they threatened to burn down his shop, I decided to use my special talents to slaughter the whole bunch. Later, turns out they weren`t some random thugs, as the guy leading them was a bigshot in some gang, something I found out when his buddies came for me. After I killed all of them, and took a bit of damage doing so, I met a member of some crime family or another, who paid me handsomely to procure my services."

The lights suddenly went out, and the suite plunged into darkness. Sounds of gunfire, blade slashes, breaking furniture and screams ensued. When the lights came on again, Jimmy saw that the whole suite had been transformed into a scene that wouldn`t have been out of place in a Quentin Tarantino film, with bodies, blood, bullet holes, slash marks, and broken items everywhere. And Shadow stood in front of him, with a double-bladed staff in one hand, and a rifle pointed at him in the other. He had blood on him, the vast majority of it not his, and a few scuffs and scratches on him, that his Aura was handling.

"Soon I had gotten enough money from them for killing other worthless crooks, so I decided to strike it out on my own. I take jobs and bounties that I consider worthwhile, as I try in this dark world to uphold as much meaning of being a Huntsman as I can, by only going after those who truly deserve to die. When I took up your offer, I did so not only knowing about the targets that you had named, but also knowing what kind of monster you are. Racketeering, extortion, larceny, drug- and human-trafficking, and murder in spades. You know what else I found out about you, Jimmy?"

Jimmy gulped.

"You`ve also committed arson one time, trying to get rid of a material witness. One of your victims was my father. Funny, after all this time, I had always believed that the fire had been an accident, when all this time he had actually been murdered. Knowing both this and the urban legends that surround me, I decided to take the job and go above and beyond in doing it, making me someone you simply couldn`t resist meeting. The universe has an amazing sense of humor, don`t you agree?"

Jimmy wished he had listened to his self-preservation instincts better, which had told him before all this that meeting him was a bad idea. But Shadow was right. Morbid curiosity is both an amazing and stupid thing.

A rifle blast rid Jimmy of his self-preservation instincts.

On the rooftop across the street, a man wearing navy blue was watching with a binocular and listening to the bugs he had planted. He saw the spray of blood from Jimmy`s head in his binoculars, and heard the gunshot from his bugs. He touched the comm link in his ear. "Harbinger, this is Herald One. Horseman One is a confirmed Fragment. I repeat. Horseman One is a confirmed Fragment."

"Excellent, Herald One," a suave male voice said in his head. "Pack it up and move on to Phase Two."

"Roger that." They both knew that Horseman One could make for a very valuable asset against dangerous Remnans, should they succeed to recruit him for Project Fairy Tale.

 **A/N: Review and open to OC suggestions!**


	2. Do Not Talk About Fight Club

Chapter 2: Do Not Talk About Fight Club

On a normal night, the junkyard was a quiet place. From the cars rusting to pieces in peace in their strangely stable stacks to the near literal mountains of assorted junk that included a number of the proverbial kitchen sinks, the place was a strange picture of peace and decay.

"ARE YOU READY TO RUMBLLLLLEEEEE?!"

"YEAH!" "WOOO!" "HELL YES!"

But tonight wasn`t normal. Around a circular clearing among the heaps of trash, a small crowd of teenagers had gathered. With barrels of trash burning like torches positioned about to provide light, all of them had either taken seats in the hills of neglected items or were standing around the edge of the clearing, creating an ad hoc arena where a large African-American boy stood, playing his self-styled role of announcer.

"I know you peeps have been looking forward to this as much as I have!" he continued to yell. "What we`re about to witness here is nothing short of EPIC! These two badasses have been waiting to get this battle on literally all day! They are the stuff of urban legend! This is better entertainment than Hollywood could ever get ya, `cause this is as real chicken pot pie! AND SO! Without further ado, let`s welcome tonight`s gladiators!"

He then swept his arm forward to one end of the clearing, where there was a group of stylishly-dressed youths, mostly white but with a Hispanic and a couple of Asians with them. Some of them wore a school uniform.

"In this corner, all the way from Kitemill Private Academy, this is the guy who transformed the Prep Squad from a bunch of weakass rich pussies into a force to be reckoned with! He is not only the star runningback of the football team, he has become nothing short of superhuman with how strong he`s become! Not even he knows how great his potential could be! Give it up for Jevon 'Hulking' Creek!"

At the sound of simultaneous applause and jeering, a large figure stepped forward. He was dressed in slightly baggy blue jeans, a pair of black Nike cleats, and a blue and white plaid shirt over a long-sleeved white Under Armour shirt. He had the look of a movie star, from his high cheekbones and slightly ruffled brown hair to his piercing gray eyes all on top of a perfectly proportioned and broad torso built by years of football training. He strode forward with an air of complete confidence, with a slight smile to his lips as if he already knew the outcome.

The "announcer" smiled to himself and the audience as he swung his arm around to the other corner. The group he gestured towards was essentially the complete opposite of the Prep Squad, as all of its members wore largely mismatched or very simplistic clothing

"And in this corner, the top dog of the Gray People herself! The only drugs that dealers ought to bring with them to this town is morphine, `cause they`re gonna need it after she knocks down their doors and slices them up six ways through Sunday! She is the terror of troublemakers and the greatest knife-fighter since Jim Bowie himself! Show some love people! For the one and only, Ebony 'Headphones' Carmichael!"

To the tune of truly thunderous applause and raucous insults, a figure emerged from the shadows, cutting a far different image than Creek. She wore a rugged purple jacket with its hood pulled up over a red shirt, as well as a red miniskirt with black shorts underneath, a pair of black and white stockings and red Sketchers sneakers. Her signature pair of blue headphones hung around her neck like a collar. She wore her long black hair in two separate braids, coming over the front of her shoulders and down the front of her body. Her face, while fairer than average-looking, was not something that was going to be winning her prizes at a beauty pageant any time soon, but her green eyes almost seemed to glow in the night, burning with a primal, inner light that refused to be extinguished. She marched forward towards her opponent without flair or flash. Just a simple sense of purpose and a deadly composure, as she came to a stop before him.

The "announcer" put his fingers to his lips and gave a shrill whistle, bringing down silence and gaining everyone`s attention.

"Alright, everyone! Before we begin, it`s time to go over the rules, agreed upon for this event by both parties of organizers! Rule number one: Nobody says anything about this to anybody not in the know. This rule also means that nobody can record this show and post it online. So no phones! Rule number two: No outside interference, this is one-on-one, so no helping or hurting either fighter at all! Rule three: Both fighters can only have one weapon, and everyone must see it. Show `em!"

The Prep Squad tossed Jevon a wooden baseball bat. As he picked it up, he commented, "Baseball`s not really my thing, but, beggars can`t be choosers."

Ebony snorted at the remark. "I guess roughhousing in a shit hole like this would make you dirty enough to be one." The whole crowd roared their approval of her trash talk.

"OOOOOOHH!" "YOU GOT BURNED!" "OH SNAP!"

While Ebony thought the words would get Jevon riled up, he simply laughed in response.

"Hahaha. Nice one! I think I`ll have to come up with an appropriate comeback after I win this showdown of ours."

"In your big, fat dreams," Ebony replied, reaching in and pulling out from her hoodie a large flip-knife that, in her hands, looked like a small, curved sword.

The announcer resumed speaking. "ALRIGHT! These are the only weapons permitted, so if either pulls out some other weapon, they automatically LOSE! And rule number four! No killing or permanent injury! And rule number five! Victory goes to the fighter that forces their opponent to admit defeat or the one left standing! Do both parties FULLY understand the rules they have agreed to?"

Jevon: "We do."

Ebony: "Well duh."

"Okay! Are there any last words the two fighters would like to say to one another before they go at it?"

"Yeah," Ebony said to the announcer. Then she directed her attention back at Jevon. "All this for a stupid arcade? What? Parents wouldn`t let you buy an Xbox?"

Jevon continued showing off that annoying lady-killer grin of his. "Having exclusive right to play in the arcade is nothing. There are two much prizes to be won from this. One, is the satisfaction of kicking your slumber party out of the one place in our part of town where douchebags like you are accepted. Two, by beating the legendary "Headphones" at her own game, the word will spread around that we are not to be messed with, and no one will ever bother crossing us again."

He took the bat and pointed it at himself. "This world is my oyster." He pointed the bat at Ebony. "And you`re just sand for me to step on."

She stood there in silence for a moment or two. Then she spoke: "How long did you rehearse that?"

He shrugged, lowering the bat to his side. "Took me a bit to come up with the lines. The bat required some improvisation."

"Got anything else to say?" she asked, putting on her headphones. She turned on the tune of Skillet`s 'Whispers in the Dark.' "`Cause I`m raring to swap out your spine with that bat."

He shook his head. "Nope. I say we should get started."

Both fighters got into their respective stances. Feet wide apart, weapon held to the side, eyes on their opponent.

The announcer backed up out of the ring, his excitement at the upcoming brawl practically glowing on his face in the light of the fires.

"Ohhh boy, folks! It`s hot in here! The combatants are set! LET THE BATTLE BEGIN!"

And as the crowd roared their approval, the two fighters charged forward at one another.

Ebony`s mind moved at a mile a minute as she observed her enemy`s approach. _I see why this guy is a star quarterback. He`s self-confident and obviously arrogant, but he`s also smart enough to not let his emotions get the better of him. Also, I`ve never heard of a time where he got into a fight this before, so I don`t know how he fights. Finally, he hasn`t shown or done anything that would indicate how he`s gonna approach this. I`ll have to play this one by ear._

As the two closed in, Jevon used his bat`s greater length to swing first, bringing the bat in a downward diagonal at her torso. She immediately responded by blocking the bat with her knife, which she`d switched to her left hand moments before, and used her forward momentum and lower stature to bring her right shoulder into his gut, briefly knocking Jevon back a step. Keeping the momentum on her side, she switched the knife back to her dominant right and swung at him in a wide arc, causing him to stumble back again. Moving to end the fight quickly, she thrust the knife forward, aiming to cut his face and make him stand down.

His left hand shot across and knocked her arm up and away from him. Planting his foot, he regained his balance and thrust the bat forward like a lance, bringing the blunt end of it straight into her stomach, knocking her flat on her butt, making her groan a little.

The crowd was on its feet, and the Prep Squad was jubilant.

He charged forward again, and brought both hands on the bat into a horizontal swing directed straight at Ebony`s chest. Jevon knew that the blow would connect with her, as she wasn`t fast enough to dodge, nor strong enough to block it without injuring herself.

*SHNK*

He hardly believed it when he saw it. The girl had brought her feet under herself and dove forward, underneath his swing. And, at the same time, she had swung her knife at the wooden weapon, and sliced the top half of it clean off. And she had done so at a speed much quicker than he had seen her move at up to this point.

The spectators saw this, and whooped at the sight, the Gray People in particular cheering on their favorite barwler.

 _She`s holding back,_ he realized, as she rolled back to her feet and he turned back to face her. _For whatever reason, she`s not quite giving it all she`s got, and if she`s this good with only a partial amount of her effort, I definitely don`t want to face her if she goes all out._ He threw aside the useless wooden stump brought his fists into a ready position, as the two fighters began circling each other. _And if she keeps this up, I`m going to have to take her much more seriously…_

 _He saw that,_ she thought, looking him over. _He can see my skill much clearer than earlier. This means he`s gonna up the ante on our brawl. He`s probably fazed by what I just did, but he`s holding it in pretty well._ An amused glint could be seen in her eyes. _This guy is not half bad._

Taking his stance into account, Ebony looked for an opening. She saw his line of sight directed at her knife. She burst forward, moving just a bit faster than she was earlier, swinging the knife at him in small, fast swipes, aiming for his leg, his chest, his face, his arms, at each part of his body. Jevon bounced on his feet as he dodged left and right and backward to avoid Ebony`s knife, constantly on his toes. He saw her arm come back for another thrust, aiming for his face. It came forward, and he brought his hand up to intercept it – the knife changed direction! It went for his arm!

 _Dammit!_ He thought.

The knife came back bloody. Jevon`s sleeve was ripped open, and there was a line of red on the arm he clutched with his other hand. Aiming to take advantage of his pain, Ebony sliced the knife again in the direction of Jevon`s face –

Her knife was stopped. By Jevon`s open-palmed bare hand.

The crowd, which had been cheering and encouraging the two fighters to keep going and to win, gasped and went quiet at the sight.

Ebony looked closely, and saw something pulsing from Jevon`s hand. A quick look at his injured arm. No line of red. Her eyes widened. _No. Freaking. Way,_ she thought.

She brought the knife back, but then Jevon`s arm shot forward much faster than it did earlier, and slammed his fist into her face, knocking her back a few feet and down on her side, with a bruise on her cheek and a bloody nose. She still held on to her large knife. Jevon quickly moved forward and kicked at her hand. The knife flew out of grasp and reach.

Jevon gave her a grin as he looked down at her. He brought his foot up and stomped down, but she rolled to the side and quickly got back up. Jevon stopped when he saw her face.

Her nose wasn`t bleeding, and the bruise was literally disappearing before his eyes.

And she had a small grin on her face. He paled.

The peanut gallery cried out for blood.

She burst forward at him, putting real speed behind her as she moved too fast for him to dodge or even block. Her fist flew into his fast causing him to stagger, which she followed up with a powerful kick to his sternum, doubling him over, bringing his face into her knee, throwing him back onto his back. Bringing herself onto him, she grabbed the collar of his shirt, pulled his face up, and slammed her fist into his nose, knocking him out cold.

As Ebony stood up again, the crowd held its collective breath, watching Jevon Creek for any sign of movement. There was none.

"AND WE HAVE A WINNER! AND THAT IS "HEADPHONES!"

And the crowd cheered, while the Prep Squad rushed to their companion`s side to aid him, as the Gray People surged forward, mobbing their champion and raising her on their shoulders, as the crowd began to chant:

HEADPHONES! HEADPHONES! HEADPHONES! HEADPHONES!

Ebony looked back at her beaten opponent, and a thought went through her mind:

 _He`s just like me._

 ** _One Hour Later…_**

The phone rang in the man`s pocket. Taking it out, he saw who it was, and answered it.

"Hello, Agent Vibro. You`re up awfully late. Don`t you have a big test tomorrow?"

"Does that mean I`m not allowed to call about the weather out east?"

"Am I allowed to ask who won the battle in your little Fight Club today?"

"Me. But the other guy is why I called you."

"Boyfriend prospect?"

"Maybe for you. I think he`s like me, a Fragment."

He sat forward in his chair. "Did you see his Sword?"

"No. I didn`t see him use a Sword, but his Shield was on full display for all to see. He instantly healed a gash on his arm and he had increased strength. He was a smart fighter though, caught me by surprise when he used it, but he went down like a rock when I put some more elbow grease into it."

"So he has potential."

"Yeah, but he`s gonna take some work."

"You required quite a bit of work yourself, Vibro."

"True. So, there anything I should know about?"

The man looked back at the Classified file on his desk. He picked it up and opened it again, looking at the contents.

"Shepherd One found another Fragment in his investigation of the Mob hits. This one promises to be a doozy if we succeed in recruiting him."

"Whoa there, Harbinger, it`s not healthy for you to be astonished. You might give someone a heart attack."

Harbinger smiled. "Trust me, Vibro. When you see this boy in action, you`ll perfectly understand what I mean."

He put the file back on his desk, scattering some of the pictures inside, revealing photographs of a trashed and bloody penthouse with a youth, who was dressed in cosplay and holding a rifle and a double-bladed staff in his hands, standing in the middle of it all, without a scratch on him.

 **A/N: Updated at last! Please leave a review and this story is open to OC suggestions.**

 **My new story, All Hail the No-Life Queen!, has been released! And there is a new poll on my profile.**


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